


Truth or Dare

by scumfuck



Category: IT 2017
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Ben Hanscom - Freeform, Beverly Marsh - Freeform, Boys Kissing, EDDIES GAY! Ok???, Eddie Kaspbrak - Freeform, Eddie pines after boys, First Kiss, M/M, One Shot, Reddie, Richie Tozier - Freeform, Richie Tozier Flirts, Truth or Dare, idk., its at ben's house, kind of, kinda angsty?? idrk, richie and eddie, sleepover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-12 21:31:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13555983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scumfuck/pseuds/scumfuck
Summary: "Truth or dare, asshat."Eddie pondered for a moment. In every game of this they'd ever played, Eddie had always been competitive, wanting to exceed whatever Richie had done. Something about this night was different. He didn't know if it was because they hadn't played truth or dare in years, and he had grown up some, or if Richie's eyes made him need to shut up, but it made his brain want to choose truth over dare. He wanted so badly to choose dare, he really did, but his mouth spoke before his gut."Truth," it blurted.





	Truth or Dare

**Author's Note:**

> i'm sorry i don't really like this :( but here u go

Eddie hated truth or dare. He hated it! He hated every single party or sleepover game, and one of the top three least favorite was truth or dare. He couldn't stand it. Granted, he thought it was better than spin the bottle, but he still hated it and he would continue to hate it forever, all because of one night. 

Every instance before this particular one, Eddie had no problem with. Before that, truth or dare was lighthearted, fun, and he had nothing to worry about. 

But Richie Tozier ruined it for him. 

They were at a sleepover at Ben's one night, the summer before senior year. It was almost a party, almost not, more like a get together, if you will. Bev was strewn across Ben's couch, her legs propped up on his thighs, and was happily conversing with Mike while she strained her neck back to see him. Stan sat in the recliner and Bill on the armrest, and Eddie was seated alone on the carpet, staring at his hands. It was a comfortable time, really, there was an old 70s music station playing on Ben's transistor radio, but the vibe immediately changed when Richie busted into the room.

"Friends! Long time no see, old chaps!" He threw his long arms up in the air, clambering in. He received a small cheering from Beverly and Ben, but Eddie simply waved.

Richie plopped down on the floor of the room, across from Eddie, his back up against Mike's couch. He grinned.

"What's on the agenda tonight, lads?" he asked, peering at his friends' faces. 

Bill shrugged. "We could play a game?" 

Beverly sprung up. She lived for games. Eddie used to think it was because she's a girl, and it was hard to be with a lot of boys without playing 'fun' sleepover games, but soon came to realize that it was really because she was competitive. In more ways than one. 

"Ooo!" She clapped her hands together. "Truth or dare, please?" She turned to Stan, who in fact, also hated party games. "Please Stanny?" she drawled. 

He nodded reluctantly and she fisted the air at his defeat. 

"Al-right, alright, alright!" Richie impressioned Matthew McConaughey, albeit terribly, and the rest of the boys situated themselves in a circle. 

As they did so, Stan moved next to Eddie, keeping a safe distance between the two of them. For an odd reason Eddie couldn't pin out, it's always been that way between him and Stan- distanced. He didn't know if it was because the two of them were both close with Richie, or if Stan simply didn't like him, but they never revealed so much about themselves. Nonetheless, Eddie still loved him, but he wish he knew if Stan loved him back.

"Bill, you go first," Bev suggested, grinning broadly. Eddie's eyes flicked over to quite possibly his handsomest friend, who sat tall as opposed to slumped over (Like Richie tended to do), and let a smile ghost over his lips. Bill has always been his best friend, he thought, even after he punched Richie, after he said nothing when Eddie came out to him in sophomore year, even after everything the two had been through together. Bill's survived countless nights of his friends bickering, and has continued to love them like a mother her child. Bill's cheeks rised when he smiled, and Eddie noticed he brushed his auburn hair out of his face quite often when he did so.

"Ok-kay..." That was another thing- Eddie loved Bill's stutter. He had no idea why, because he remembered a lot of people complaining about the anticipation, but Eddie was a patient person. "Um.. Richie." 

"Big Bill!" Richie's arms came up again, and he smiled. Eddie felt like jumping into those arms, but had to restrain himself from doing so. 

"Truh-truth or dare?" 

Richie tapped his finger on his chin. Eddie loved that. He didn't know why. Richie tapped his fingers too often, but it didn't bother him. It reminded him of a metronome. Or a heartbeat. But Eddie's heartbeat was too fast around Richie for him to really compare the two. "Dare!" 

"I d-dare you t-to let Bev... ruh-rip a p-piece of tape o-off your skin," Bill said, and shrugged when Richie cocked his head. Ben went to get tape and came back with a huge roll of heavy duty grey duct tape, excusing it with, 'We were all out of scotch!'

It didn't seem much of a problem to Beverly, however, because she happily ripped a sizeable piece off with her teeth and rolled up Richie's jean leg. 

"Woah! I have hair there!" Richie exclaimed, trying to back away from her. She laughed and held his leg tight, placing the tape right down his shin. 

Eddie stared at the light hair on Richie's calves, and laughed along with Beverly and Ben. 

She didn't even give the boy a warning sign before she ripped it off. She simply said, "This is what waxing feels like," and tugged it off swiftly like a band-aid. 

Richie fucking yowled, like a wolf, and looked down in awe at the stinging pain. Almost every hair on his right leg was clean ripped off, leaving a shiny smooth surface of pale skin behind. "Well holy shit, Marsh! If I knew it was gonna succeed at hair removal, I would have let you put it on my pubes!" She smacked him in the arm and scrunched up her nose, shaking her head in mock annoyance. 

"Thank you, Billy, I'll forever enjoy my new waxed leg," Richie smiled and pulled down his pant leg again. Then, he turned to Eddie. At first, Eddie thought maybe he was shooting for Stan to ask next, but when Eddie looked up, his eyes were mischievous and directed at him. Eddie stared at his face, trying to pull on a defensive one, but not particularly succeeding.

"Edward... you've been rather quiet, haven't you?" Richie's eyes narrowed. Mike laughed at the tone, muttering an "oh no" under his breath. 

"Guess so, Rich. I was just so disgusted by how hairy your legs were, it knocked the words out of me," Eddie retorted, shrugging somewhat nonchalantly. Richie grinned. 

"Truth or dare, asshat." 

Eddie pondered for a moment. In every game of this they'd ever played, Eddie had always been competitive, wanting to exceed whatever Richie had done. Something about this night was different. He didn't know if it was because they hadn't played truth or dare in years, and he had grown up some, or if Richie's eyes made him need to shut up, but it made his brain want to choose truth over dare. He wanted so badly to choose dare, he really did, but his mouth spoke before his gut.

"Truth," it blurted. Richie's eyebrows raised, but his smirk spread. Eddie stared at his lips, which he kept licking and _god, would he stop licking his lips_? 

The aura around them changed, and after Richie said it, he felt everyone's breath hitch, including his own. "Do you want to kiss me?" 

Eddie's eyes widened. He looked up into Richie's, like Bambi in headlights, and immediately wanted to die. He felt like the walls were closing in on him. His brain stopped working. And all he could see was Richie's stupid fucking face, because the corner of his eyes were getting fuzzy and Beverly and Mike went out of view. He did hear, though, Beverly whisper-screaming at Richie, but his face didn't flinch. 

"Dare," Eddie decided instead, and his hands went to the floor beside him. They pressed into the carpet, nails digging into the floor. 

"Fine," Richie shrugged, and he leaned forward in the circle, about half a foot away from Eddie's face. Eddie wanted to gag, but not because of the proximity, he wanted to gag because this was not what he wanted to happen tonight. "I _dare_ you to kiss me." Bill had a concerned look on his face.

"Knock it off, Rich," Beverly said, not in a casual way. She had a warning in her voice. Eddie couldn't look away and he felt his stomach drop farther than the floor, into the basement, hell, the damned thing fell through the Earth like a heavy weight, making him feel pushed down into the ground. He could barely feel Stan grab his wrist, or the pain of his nails pressing into the carpet harshly. 

"No," Richie replied over his shoulder. "I wanna see what he does." 

"You're being an asshole, Rich!" Stan bursted. Richie ignored him, even though to Eddie, it was the first time he'd ever let go of a calm and eloquent demeanor. 

Richie repeated it. "I dare you," he breathed, and Eddie could feel it, "To kiss me." 

Eddie was petrified. He was pressured. He was targeted and unhappy and he wanted to melt into the floor, why did Richie have to be like this? 

Eddie's hand came up out of the carpet, slipping off Stan's grip as he stood up. He said nothing, just looked down at Richie for a second, the tears pricking into his eyes. Then he looked to Ben. 

"Thank you for hosting, Ben," he was trying his hardest not to let his voice crack. Ben nodded, an apologetic look on his face. It made him want to cry even more. 

He turned swiftly on his feet, and stepped carefully over Stan before leaving the room. He was halfway out the front door when he heard the silence break, accusations of "Really, Richie?" and "You're the biggest fucking fuck-up," and "Did you see his face?" back and forth. 

He wanted someone to hold him. He wanted to crawl into the ground and stay there forever, hibernate. Or maybe die. He felt a warm tear trail down his cheek.  

He heard the screen door behind him slam as he was halfway down the street. It was growing dark out, a deep blue sky, the summer kind, with no clouds and a barely visible moon. 

He began to think that the person running up behind him was Bill, maybe Mike, or even possibly Stan, but when an arm grabbed his shoulder, it had long fingers. No. Please, god, no. They made him come out and apologize. He wanted to die right then and there.

"Eddie, I-" 

Eddie didn't even turn around, but the tears kept coming after he spoke. "What?" His voice cracked, and he swallowed. "What, you're sorry?" 

Richie's fingers tensed on his shoulder. 

"You're sorry that you made fun of me in front of all of our friends?" He turned around and shrugged off the hand, before stepping back. He didn't even want to look at his face. He never wanted to look at it again. "You're sorry that you fucking... You fucking made fun of my sexuality?" 

Richie's mouth was propped open. Mouthbreather. Fuck him. "I didn't mean to-" 

"You're a piece of shit," Eddie wanted to just cry, to forgive him and let him hug him, but he was angry. "I mean it... I thought you loved me, Richie." He blinked up at his friend, and pulled his eyebrows together angrily. Their movement pushed more tears out of his eyes. 

"Wait, Eddie." Richie grabbed his wrist, and his hands were warm and heavy. Eddie looked down to the sidewalk. It was cracked underneath his feet. Kinda like his heart, ha. "Hey, look at me." 

"No." 

Callaused fingers pulled on the skin of his chin. They forced his head up, his eyes met with Richie's. They were teary, too, he thought, but it might have been his glasses. "I know I'm a piece of shit. Eddie, I-" His pitch changed, and he blinked his eyes closed for a second before opening them again, breathing in a thick breath of humid air. "I know." 

Eddie said nothing and stared at a freckle under his lip. 

"I've ... I've always known," he sighed. Eddie wasn't sure as to what he was referring to. Another shaky breath. "But if you think, for a second- Eddie, if you think for even a millisecond, or whatever the fuck is shorter than that, that I don't love you, you're absolutely fucking incorrect." 

And even though it was breathy and cracked in half, it was sincere. Eddie's eyes flicked back to Richie's irises. 

The hand on his chin left, moving behind his cheek, resting on his jaw and ear, his thumb tracing over the skin of his cheek. 

"Eddie, I know I do- I know, I pull dumb shit like that, because my mouth thinks on separate planes of thought from my brain, but I don't mean it," Eddie wasn't sure if it made sense, but he understood it. "I never mean anything like that." There was a pause, a moment where the two of them barely exchanged a breath, just stared at the other.

"You think me being gay isn't okay." Eddie said finally, in the smallest voice. 

"You don't actually think that, do you?" Richie's tone turned even more serious, which seemed impossible until then. "Eddie, I think the exact opposite." 

One of Eddie's tears fell close to his mouth and he could taste the saltiness of it. 

"I care so much about you, Eddie," he whispered. "So much. If you ever left, I'd probably kill myself, or something. Seriously. Like, I'd plan it and everything. Like that Heathers movie, 'member when we watched that?" Eddie let out a breathy laugh through his tears, it was short. 

"Yeah," he responded. 

"Living without you would be actual hell." 

Eddie felt like he was being pranked, like someone would jump out of a bush with a camera and snapshot a picture of his distraught face any second. 

Eddie looked up at him, through fuzzy vision. He took a gulp of air before speaking. "Truth or dare?" 

Richie smiled sadly, and for the first time in his life, said, "Truth." 

"Do you want to kiss me?" It was shaky, but so were his fingers, and his knees. 

"So badly, Eddie," Richie sighed out, leaning down into the boy and catching his lips smoothly. It was warm and sweet and Eddie melted in his arm. His head nuzzled into Richie's hand, which cradled his jaw softly. When Richie pulled back, he stared at the shorter boy as if he was the entire world, the stars, everything. Eddie didn't see though, his eyes were closed, savoring the moment, the taste of Richie's lips that came back when he licked his own. He felt the brush of Richie's thumb wiping away his tears. 

"You are the most beautiful person I've ever seen," Richie mumbled under his breath. Eddie's eyes blinked open and he stared confused up at the taller boy. 

"I-" 

"Can we- can you come over to my house?" 

Eddie licked his lips again. 

"We can watch a movie, or listen to music. Or do whatever you want," Richie rambled. "We can kiss. If you want." 

Eddie let his head fall on Richie's shoulder, and nodded into it, wrapping his arms around his waist and squeezing lightly. 

"I love you," Richie murmured. 

"I hate truth or dare." 

 


End file.
